


60 minutes of homin

by madamteatime



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: M/M, TVXQ 60 Minute Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-03-18 21:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3585264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamteatime/pseuds/madamteatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>60 minute challenge fics for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/%EB%8F%99%EB%B0%A9%EC%8B%A0%EA%B8%B0_%EC%A0%84%EB%A0%A5_60%EB%B6%84">#동방신기_전력_60분</a>. All fics written in an hour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Theme: Hospital

The stage light comes crashing down and its pieces scatter everywhere. Another section of the stage teeters and falls after it, swung off balance by the falling light.

Screams shatter the night air. The music is turned off and people rush to the stage but it’s too late, there’s already a body down – 

Yunho watches it happen in slow motion. He watches Changmin look up and see the falling light, his eyes following its trajectory towards Taemin. He seems to move without thinking, pushing the other boy out of the way just as the light comes down and crushes him under. Yunho watches it from backstage and then everything’s a blur and he’s running.

He wasn’t on stage. If he’d been on stage he would have saved Changmin.

\- - -

They rush Changmin to a private hospital and the doctors work their magic. He undergoes major surgery for internal bleeding and several broken bones, but all of that pales in comparison to the head trauma. He’s got a massive concussion and the doctors are forced to induce a coma that, while risky, could potentially save his life.

Yunho spends the next three weeks chewing his lower lip raw and clutching his hands together in prayer. He sits at Changmin’s bedside and begs forgiveness for every sin he’s ever committed, he’s so sorry, he’ll do anything, just please _please_ bring Changmin back to him.

His prayers are answered one quiet Monday morning. Nobody else is around – Changmin’s mother had been there earlier, like she’s been every day, but Yunho had wiped her silent tears and gently told her to go home and get some rest. Yunho is sitting on the chair beside Changmin’s bed, aimlessly scrolling through his messages when a soft groan makes him look up.

He’s on his feet in seconds, heart beating in his throat as Changmin stirs. His eyes flutter open and look around the room, puzzled and uncomprehending, mouth turned down in a confused pout.

Yunho makes a soft sound and those big brown eyes turn on him. 

“Changminnie,” he breathes. He swallows and reaches for his hand, clutching Changmin’s soft palm in his. Changmin lets him but doesn’t hold his hand back. His brow furrows and he licks his lips.

“Um,” he rasps. “Who are you?”

Yunho stares, his relief draining like ice.

Changmin doesn’t know him.

\- - -

Selective amnesia, the doctors say. Very common with head injuries and probably not permanent. They try to be positive about it – Changmin being awake is a big enough miracle. He seems to be recovering okay, although his hands often shake and he has trouble writing things. All side effects of the accident but very treatable.

Yunho tries to be positive about it. Changmin is awake and talking and that’s all that matters. After a couple of days he can even get up and walk around, carefully and with aid. But he doesn’t remember Yunho – _only_ Yunho, because he seems to have no trouble remembering everyone else. He clings to his mother when she comes to visit him and blinks those wide brown eyes at Yunho over her shoulder and Yunho feels like an outsider, adrift without Changmin’s love to anchor him. There’s nothing in those eyes expect confusion, like he’s a puzzle Changmin can’t figure out, confusion where there used to be fondness and exasperation and gentle depths of caring. 

At least he doesn’t tell Yunho to go away. Yunho is reading by his bedside one morning while Changmin eats his breakfast. He’s struggling to open a pudding cup, hands shaking more than usual.

“Here,” Yunho puts his book aside and rises to help him. Changmin sits back and lets him, and when Yunho dips a spoon in the pudding and raises it to Changmin’s mouth he doesn’t protest.

Yunho sits on the bed and feeds him silently, Changmin’s eyes on him quiet and searching. He opens his mouth obediently for each spoon like a baby bird, and a smile flickers across Yunho’s face.

“Hyung,” Changmin says after a while. Yunho looks up. “Mom says you’re my Yunho hyung. We’ve been in TVXQ together for 11 years. You’re my partner. My other half. _So why can’t I remember you_?” Changmin rubs a hand over his forehead and makes a frustrated sound.

Yunho swallows. “I don’t know,” he says softly.

“It hurts you,” Changmin says, eyes sad. “It hurts you that I can’t remember you.”

It hurts so much he can’t put it into words.

“Y-yeah,” Yunho rasps, trying to swallow his voice crack.

“I’m sorry,” Changmin hangs his head, and Yunho’s chest constricts so much he can barely breathe.

\- - -

Changmin’s friends come to visit him, bearing gifts and chatter and laughter. Taemin cries when he sees him and babbles apologies, but Changmin just laughs and tells him he doesn’t look good when he cries so stop that right now. They take him out for a stroll around the hospital grounds and spread out a picnic under the trees, glad to take advantage of the warm summer day.

Yunho hangs back and watches them with happiness and the bitter taste of jealousy mixing in his mouth. He’d arrived just as they were leaving Changmin’s hospital room for the grounds and for the first time since he woke Changmin had looked completely at ease, no confusion or frustration clouding his face. All that had changed as soon as he spotted Yunho.

“Still nothing huh?” Kyuhyun comes to stand beside him, arms crossed as they watch Minho and Taemin start a game of frisbee.

“Nada. It’s like I never existed. There’s a Yunho-shaped hole in his memories.” Yunho gives a hollow laugh. 

Kyuhyun sighs and squeezes his arm. “The doctors said it’s only temporary.”

“Sure,” Yunho nods, but he doesn’t share his doubts about how right the doctors may be. 

Eventually Changmin gets tired and they head inside. He stumbles in the hallway, legs still weak like a newborn fawn, and Yunho reaches out immediately to catch him. His arm goes around Changmin’s waist and Changmin makes a soft sound as he lands against his chest.

“It’s okay,” Yunho says, voice low. “I’ve got you.”

Changmin’s hands clench in his shirt, and even after they get to his room it’s a while before he lets go of Yunho’s hand.

\- - -

“Hyung,” Changmin asks him a few days later. “Were we lovers?”

Yunho almost chokes on his water. He swallows and puts the bottle aside.

It’s late and the hospital visiting hours are over. He should be heading home soon, but instead he goes over and takes a seat on Changmin’s bed.

“Why do you ask?” he says, searching Changmin’s face, heart flickering with tiny hope.

“Just,” Changmin licks his lips and looks away. “The way you look at me. . .and when you’re near me I – ” Changmin cuts himself off and blushes. 

He’s so sweet and Yunho can’t bear being without him.

“Yes,” he says, fingers hovering near Changmin’s cheek. “We were lovers.”

Changmin stares at him, wide eyes and soft lips, and Yunho leans closer and kisses him. 

Changmin’s eyes slide closed and he kisses back, slowly, hesitantly, like he’s mapping out some long-forgotten territory. His hands rise and caress Yunho’s face.

“Hyung,” he whispers, and the sound is like home.


	2. Theme: Noir/Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot shamelessly stolen from Elementary

“SWAT team move in,” Changmin says into the transceiver.

Dark shapes move across their screens, the members of the police special forces silently making their way forward. The warehouse looms ahead, dark and foreboding against the full moon.

“Padlock on the door,” their team leader reports.

“Break it down,” Changmin says. He puts both hands flat on the table and leans forward, eyes blazing as he watches them force their way in, guns cocked and hands steady. His badge glints at his belt, his team just as silent and breathless as they watch months of investigative work reach fruition before them. 

“Police! Put your hands up!” 

The calls echo in the darkness as the shuffle of numerous policemen pouring into the building magnifies.

“Find the lights,” Changmin instructs. There’s a few seconds of silence, then light floods the area.

It’s empty.

They’ve been duped.

\- - -

Changmin sits at his desk and drops his head in his hands.

His computer displays a news article, a loud headline titled ‘Criminal mastermind foils authorities again! Is Police Chief Shim to blame?’

Changmin snorts softly and shakes his head. _Criminal mastermind indeed._

5 years he’s been chasing this guy. 5 years of slogging through mud – literal and figurative – to try and unravel the designs of the elusive U. He was a whisper on the wind, barely even a person. The first time one of his henchmen spilled about U Changmin hadn’t even believed him. 8 murders and a $15 million robbery later he was willing to listen a second time, and the deeper he dug the more tangled the web became.

U had a finger in every pie, from helping crime syndicates to international fraud and embezzlement, and they didn’t have so much as a picture of him. He was a genius, and if Changmin wasn’t so determined to bring him down he almost would have admired the guy.

His gaze slides across his desk to the frame perched beside his computer. The photo in it shows two smiling men with their arms slung around each other. One is Changmin, and the other is a handsome, dark-haired man with a small face and kittenish eyes. 

Changmin swallows and looks away just as there’s a knock on his door. 

Minho, his chief investigator, pokes his head in.

“We need you in the control room now,” he says urgently.

Changmin gets to the room just as a tinny voice issues out of the phone speaker. “Is he here?”

Whoever it is they’re using a voice scrambler. Changmin steps forward and indicates that his staff keep silent.

“This is police chief Shim. Who am I speaking to?” he says. 

“My name is U,” the voice says. There’s a flurry of movement and Changmin indicates that they get an IP tracker on the line _now_.

“I think it’s about time we met,” U says. 

“I have a warrant for your arrest,” Changmin says frankly.

U chuckles down the line. “Come to this address. I’ll be waiting for you.”

The line goes dead.

Changmin’s phone beeps with a text message. It’s from an unknown ID, and it contains a single address.

\- - -

The manor is old and sprawling, a rolling expanse of land just outside the city. The owner is some Brazilian oil tycoon who bought it on a whim and never used it. It is, for all intent and purposes, abandoned.

It is also the location U gave him. It’s broad daylight so they had decided against a SWAT team, but regardless Changmin has backup in place.

“Not really hiding is he,” Minho says, eyeing the extravagant building. 

“It’s U,” Changmin says. “He likes a show.”

They draw their guns and nudge the front door open. It’s unlocked and they step inside slowly, bulletproof vests tight against their chests.

The house is empty and they check each room as they go. Deeper and deeper the hallways wind, until they reach a sunroom towards the back. Sunlight streams in and half-finished paintings lie here and there.

Changmin’s gaze catches on one and he stares. He knows that style.

Someone is seated before an easel at the center of the room. He turns and smiles at them. “Changminnie.”

Changmin stops breathing. He’s in a dream. This can’t be real, this isn’t –

“Yunho,” he chokes out, eyes blurring with tears.

_7 years ago Changmin was assigned a new partner, an investigator from Gwangju who had moved to Seoul to help them with a case._

Yunho stands and Changmin stumbles back, a confused sound falling from his lips. From the corner of his eyes he sees Minho shoot him a confused look.

_Yunho was the most brilliant man he’d ever met. Sweet and charming and so intelligent it left Changmin breathless sometimes. They worked together like a dream – falling in love was almost inevitable._

“I’ve waited so long to see you,” Yunho says, and his smile is more brilliant than the sunlight streaming down on them.

“Yunho – h-how – ” Changmin chokes out.

_Yunho kissed him first. Changmin had been too shy, too scared of ruining their perfect partnership – but Yunho had stayed late at the office one evening to work on a case with him, and when it got even later and Changmin was on his third coffee he had taken the cup, gently put it aside, and kissed him._

_Sometimes Changmin could still taste that coffee-stained kiss on his lips._

“Aren’t you happy to see me?” Yunho’s perfect lips turn down in a pout.

“But you’re dead,” Changmin breathes. _U killed you_ his mind screams.

“Mm not quite,” Yunho taps his chin, and it’s only then that Changmin notices the gun tucked in his other hand. Alarm bells go off and he steps back, sensing Minho tense beside him.

“It was surprisingly easy,” Yunho says. “To fake my own death.” 

Changmin inhales a sharp breath. “What?” he whispers.

“You were so distraught. And then you were so angry, so determined to find U and avenge me. It was sweet,” Yunho smiles. “It was also, I’m sorry to say, increasingly inconvenient. You are too good at your job Changminnie. It’s a problem in your line of work.”

He moves faster than Changmin, still reeling, can comprehend. Minho goes down first, a bullet in his leg and another in his shoulder sending him crashing to the floor with a cry.

Yunho advances on Changmin, the sunshine giving way to hard, cold steel and a brilliance that Changmin was only now realising was twisted, so twisted, how had he not seen – 

The barrel of the gun meets his forehead and he freezes.

“If only you knew my darling,” Yunho breathes. “It was me you were hunting all along.”


	3. Theme: Shooting Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yunho makes a wish on a shooting star

Yunho crouches behind the bedroom door and glumly listens to his parents fighting downstairs. He’s covering his sister Jihye’s ears so she won’t have to hear it; she had come to his room because the noise had woken her, upset and confused, and Yunho had tried his best to soothe her. She was only 7 so she didn’t understand what was happening but Yunho was 9 years old so he knew it was something about a business and his uncle and his mum was very angry with his dad. 

“It’s okay,” he whispers to Jihye, and flinches when he hears what sounds like a plate breaking downstairs. Forcing a smile, Yunho draws Jihye to her feet and leads her to his bed.

“Come on, you can sleep here tonight,” he says. 

Jihye nods and climbs into his bed and looks at him with wide eyes. “Are mum and dad going to get a dimorce?” she whispers. “Solji’s parents got a dimorce and now she never sees her dad, I don’t want that to happen.”

“Divorce,” Yunho corrects her. “And no, mum and dad aren’t getting divorced,” he tries to inject as much conviction in his voice as he can, but as soon as Jihye nods and closes her eyes the smile drops off Yunho’s face. He strokes her head until she falls asleep, then sighs and goes to the window.

Stars twinkle back at him, blanketing a velvet night. Yunho clasps his hands together and closes his eyes.

“Dear God,” he whispers. “How are you? I’m okay. I wish you would make mum not mad at dad anymore. He didn’t mean to do anything wrong, I know it. I just wish – ” Yunho opens his eyes and stares at the darkness.

A star shoots across the sky and Yunho gasps. He quickly closes his eyes to make a wish.

“I wish,” he whispers. “That I had a friend. Not Donghae from next door, he just laughs at everything. A friend who I can talk to. Please send me a friend like that.”

Silence answers him. Yunho sighs – he should’ve known better.

He starts to turn away from the window when a light catches his eye. It’s falling from the sky, too big to be a star, and glowing as it gets nearer. It’s coming right towards their backyard, and Yunho stares as the bright objects drops with a thump in their yard and lays still.

For a second he’s frozen with surprise. Then he scrambles to his door, pulls it open quietly and sneaks downstairs.

It’s silent now so his parents must have gone to bed. Yunho tiptoes to the back door and slides it open and runs into their backyard, barefoot and in his pajamas. 

A boy is sitting in his backyard looking cold and confused. He blinks wide brown eyes at Yunho as he gets closer and Yunho gapes at him. The boy looks slightly younger than him and has curly brown hair and his skin is glowing weirdly. 

It takes Yunho a second to remember his manners. 

“Hi,” he says. “I’m Yunho. Who are you?”

“Ch-Changmin,” the boys stutters, and Yunho realises belatedly how cold it is. He helps Changmin to his feet and leads him inside and Changmin follows him, confused but obedient. 

“Uh,” Yunho flounders. “Do you want some milk?” He always sees his mum offer guests something to drink and it seems to be the polite thing to do.

“Okay,” Changmin says. Yunho gets out some milk and pours him a glass and Changmin gulps it down. He seems to like the taste, and Yunho giggles at the milk mustache it leaves behind on his face.

“Come on, let’s go to bed,” Yunho says. “I have school in the morning and it’s way past my bedtime.”

He leads Changmin to his room and pokes Jihye awake.

“Go sleep in your bed,” he whispers. Jihye whines and complains but eventually trudges off, barely glancing at him or his new friend.

Yunho curls up under his covers with Changmin and blinks at the other boy. Changmin yawns. 

“Are you a star?” Yunho whispers. Changmin stops rubbing his eyes and gives him a confused look.

“What?” 

Yunho quickly shakes his head. “Nothing. Let’s go to sleep.”

Changmin nods and immediately wraps his arms around him, and within minutes Yunho is asleep.

\- - -

In the morning Yunho’s mother almost screams when she goes to wake him and finds not one but two boys in his bed.

“Yunho!” she gasps. “Who – how – ”

“Ma this is Changmin!” Yunho announces happily. Changmin mumbles sleepily and buries his face in his side. “He’s my friend. I found him in our backyard.”

“How on earth did he gets there? Do his parents know? Oh they must be worried sick,” his mum frets. She makes breakfast for them and fusses over Changmin, asking him questions about where he lives and what his parents’ names are. Changmin seems confused by most of the questions and eventually Yunho’s mother deflates.

“Well – I’m sure we’ll hear about a missing child soon enough. Darling I need to go to work – ” she gives Yunho a pleading look.

“Changmin can go to school with me,” Yunho says. “I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.” 

“I’ll write your teacher a note,” his mum drops a kiss on his head and gets them ready for school.

“I’m sorry,” Changmin says. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”

“Oh – ” Yunho’s mum looks flustered. “What a polite child. Don’t worry dear we’ll find your family soon enough.”

Jihye stares at Changmin as they all walk to school together. 

“Who are you?” she says. 

“Changminnie is my friend,” Yunho grabs his hand. “I made a wish on a shooting star for God to send me a friend and he sent me Changmin so now he’s going to live with us.”

Jihye gapes at him. “Oppa you can’t do that!”

“Yes I can,” Yunho says defensively. 

Jihye stares at their clasped hands, then giggles. “Is he your boyfriend?” 

“What?” Yunho yelps.

“Oppa has a boyfriend!” Jihye squeals and runs off towards the gates of the school.

“Yah!” Yunho calls after her. He looks down at their hands, then back up at Changmin.

Changmin turns bright red.


End file.
